Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming urge UK to block deal
Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong have urged the U.K. government to block the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, warning in a Guardian op-ed that it “threatens to inflict immense harm on the British public.” They pressed culture minister Lisa Nandy to intervene in the public interest.
Key Takeaways
- Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong say the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal is not in the public interest.
- They warn of redundancies, cancelled productions, fewer commissions and fewer creative risks.
- Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is “minded to intervene,” with Parliament in recess until Sept. 1.
- The European Commission has approved the merger with conditions; in the U.S., Paramount postponed it pending an antitrust trial.
What did Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Wong demand?
In an op-ed addressed to culture minister Lisa Nandy and published in the Guardian, the three actors called on her to step in. According to Variety, they said her intervention could prove “one of the most important decisions any culture secretary has taken for UK film, television and media in a generation.”
They argue the merger would bring “redundancies, cancelled productions, fewer films commissioned and fewer risks taken.” While those industrial effects sit more with the Competition and Markets Authority, which is also reviewing the deal, Nandy’s role is to judge whether the merger serves the public interest. Their answer, they wrote, is clear: “It most certainly is not.”
Why do they say the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger matters for news?
The trio highlight Paramount’s existing ownership of U.K. public service broadcaster Channel 5 and CBS in the United States. Adding Warner Bros. Discovery would also bring CNN and CNN International under the same commercial umbrella.
“If one commercially interested owner controls access to both [the CNN and CBS news archives], they control the raw material of our historical memory,” the op-ed states. That media-power concern sits alongside the wider creative-industry warnings tracked on BlasterPost’s Streaming & TV Alerts hub.
Will the U.K. government intervene in the deal?
Nandy has already said she is “minded to intervene,” though Parliament is in recess until Sept. 1. The culture secretary, who kept her post after a cabinet reshuffle under incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham, also faces the Comcast-owned Sky bid for ITV and the BBC’s royal charter renewal.
The actors’ closing appeal was blunt: Nandy “has opened the door to intervention” and “must walk through it” to block the merger and defend the public interest. Last week the European Commission approved the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger with conditions. In the U.S., Paramount agreed as of Friday to postpone the deal until after an antitrust trial.